Trucker Hats, Tattoos, and Madonna

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Audigier says he still sells 1,000 of the "trucker hats" he helped make popular while working at Von Dutch. Jeff Carrillo

For the Ed Hardy line, Audigier licensed some of the legendary tattoo artist's vintage designs. Jeff Carrillo

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With no prompting, Audigier escorts a visitor through his two-story warehouse plastered with photos of celebrities wearing his shirts, jeans, and hats—everyone from Paris Hilton to Larry King to some names Audigier can't quite remember. "Mayor, Mayor…," he says. "Bill Maher," an assistant reminds. There's a whole Madonna wall—70 candid shots of the pop star in his clothes, all taken by paparazzi on different days in the past year. "It's very simple," Audigier says, explaining his celebrity-based marketing strategy. "You send Britney a box. Minutes later.…." He taps a photo of Spears. And it's not just the celebrities and their stylists who get free clothes. Audigier sends samples out to anyone who comes in contact with them— doormen, chauffeurs, even the paparazzi themselves.

Million-Dollar Licensing Fees

Perhaps realizing from his Von Dutch experience that hot fashion labels often have a short shelf life, Audigier has been re-licensing the Ed Hardy designs to manufacturers of everything from air fresheners to energy drinks. Sales for the privately held company topped $114 million last year, according to Audigier. That was nearly twice what he had originally forecast. He has opened more than a dozen stores in trendy neighborhoods from New York to Los Angeles.

For his part, Hardy, who now gets licensing fees likely in the millions of dollars, told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006 that he initially had reservations about doing business with Audigier. This was after embarking on his own Google research and seeing photos of the flamboyant designer cavorting with celebrities at "some secret location." Hardy told the paper that he called one of his associates and said: "This guy is at ground zero of everything that's wrong with contemporary civilization. However, if he wants to make a lot of money with my art, and it's not going to be overtly negative, then what the hell."

After years of trying to promote tattooing as fine art, Hardy says he's happy his trade has entered the mainstream. Through a separate relationship with another company, Ku Ambiance, Hardy has been creating high-end pieces of art, including Japanese vases, screens, and porcelain plates that features his designs and sell for thousands of dollars. But he finds the results of Audigier's work almost everywhere. "I see young girls walking down the street wearing designs I tattooed on Marines 20 years ago," Hardy says, clearly amazed by it all.

Palmeri is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Los Angeles bureau.